Campaigners calling for buffer zones to prevent harassment and abuse of women accessing abortion centres are expecting a Home Office announcement within weeks.

The Labour MP Rupa Huq, who leads a cross-party campaign calling for national legislation following the model of the UK’s first abortion clinic safe zone in Ealing, west London, said the home secretary had pledged an announcement in September.

Abortion pills are safe and simple
So why won’t the government let women in England take them at home?

Ann Furedi, Chief executive, BPAS
1 August 2018

The government may claim its health service has a commitment to evidence-based treatment, but it is shamefully blind to the evidence when it comes to abortion.

Britain was among the very first countries to allow early medical abortion in hospitals and clinics when it became available more than two decades ago. It now trails behind almost every other country in allowing women to use abortion pills in a sensible, safe and evidence-based way.

Rise in women travelling from Northern Ireland to England for abortions
Campaigners say having different abortion laws on either side of Irish border breaches Good Friday agreement

James Tapper
Sat 21 Jul 2018

The number of women travelling from Northern Ireland to have an abortion in England has jumped dramatically since the government set up a special hotline in March.

A total of 342 women and girls – including at least one 12-year-old – went to England for a termination through the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) in the three months since March: a significant increase on the 190 women who travelled to use the same service in the previous nine months.

50 MPs Call For Women In England To Be Able To Take Abortion Pills At Home
Women can begin to miscarry on their way home from clinics, under current regulations.

By Nicola Slawson
July 16, 2018

MPs are calling on the new health and social care secretary to allow women in England to take the second pill required for an abortion at home.

In a letter, which has gained cross-party support from more than 50 MPs, Matt Hancock has been urged to remove the restriction, which requires women to take both drugs (mifepristone and misoprostol) at a licensed clinic or hospital.

ABORTION PILL HORROR Former Aberdeen student reveals her agony at having an abortion in the back of a taxi – and she’s not the only one faced with this horrific ordeal

Claudia, 23, had no choice but to go through an abortion in the back of a cab. -but she's not the only one

By Zoe Apostolides
10th July 2018

BENT double in the back of a cab with agonising cramps and feeling herself starting to bleed is not how Claudia expected her abortion to happen.

A student in her final year at Aberdeen University, Claudia, now 23, made the tough decision to terminate her pregnancy at seven weeks last year – but was forced to go through the trauma of starting to bleed on her way home from the hospital in the back of a stranger’s taxi.

Wales to allow women to take second abortion pill at home
Women in Wales will be allowed to take the second medication needed in a medical termination to be taken at home.

Friday 29 June 2018

By Sanya Burgess, news reporter

Wales is to allow women to take the abortion pill at home to avoid bleeding and pain in public. The change in the rules will allow women to take the second abortion pill at home, announced Welsh Health Secretary Vaughan Gething.

Guidance will be issued to health boards in Wales today to allow misoprostol, the second medication needed in a medical termination, to be self-administered at home.

Sajid Javid will come under pressure from a crossbench group of MPs to bring forward a bill that would allow reformers to decriminalise abortion in Northern Ireland.

More than 30 MPs have pledged to send the home secretary written questions on Monday demanding the domestic abuse bill be brought before parliament by the autumn. This would allow pro-choice MPs to put down an amendment that would give women in Northern Ireland the right to access terminations.

Women in their 30s are behind first surge in abortion rates in six years, as generation faces growing pressure over their careers

- More than a third of abortions last year were carried out for women over 30
- Teenage abortion has plunged alongside the rapid drop in teen pregnancies
- The increase in abortion levels among older women points to growing pressure on a generation of women over careers

By Steve Doughty for the Daily Mail

Published: 7 June 2018

The number of abortions in England and Wales is rising for the first time in six years, pushed up by a surge in terminations for older women.

More than a third last year were carried out for women over 30, and there were nearly three times as many abortions among over-30s as there were for teenagers.

Teenage abortion numbers have plunged alongside the rapid drop in teen pregnancies over the past decade.

Ban on anti-abortion protests at London clinic disproportionate, court hears
Council accused of infringing freedom of speech with ban at Marie Stopes clinic in Ealing

Dan Sabbagh
Thu 7 Jun 2018

An anti-abortion group seeking to overturn the UK’s only exclusion zone around a Marie Stopes clinic, in Ealing, west London, have told judges they believe the council’s actions amounted to an illegal discrimination against their right to free speech and peaceful protest.

Alasdair Henderson, a lawyer representing a woman who is a member of the Good Counsel Network, said that the ban on protesters from being within 100 metres of the clinic should be struck down because the effect on the anti-abortion group was “inherently disproportionate”.